History of Wake Forest College, Volume IV (1943-1967)
36 of 402

The Dawn of a New Day 29 purpose. This we deem to be the greatest danger, and against it the bene- factors represented in the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and the trustees of the college are united in solemn pledge to stand guard. But Hayes said there were obvious advantages, and the ones he presented seemed to outweigh the disadvantages. He listed them as follows: 1. Population and Baptist membership of the state are predominantly west of Wake Forest. The 1940 census reveals that the white population of the state east of Wake Forest is approximately 20 percent as compared with approximately 80 percent west of Wake Forest. Memberships in Baptist churches have approximately the same distribution. 2. There is no senior Baptist college in the western half of the state at present, and two of the three junior colleges in the western area are owned by the local area in which they are located rather than by the convention. 3. North Carolina's investment in plant and endowment of senior colleges and universities is at present approximately $100 million in the eastern half of the state and $25 million in the western half. A careful check shows that not more than ii percent of the white students of North Carolina in senior colleges and universities are in institutions west of Winston-Salem. 4. The area within a thirty-mile radius of Raleigh has been blessed with approximately 75 percent of all investments which have been made for higher education in North Carolina. 5. The combined development of industry, agriculture, and water power in the western end of the state is responsible for the steady western move- ment of the center of population. 6. The present plant at Wake Forest is inadequate, and removal would permit the building of a thoroughly modern and suitable plant, on spacious grounds. 7. The present income of the college is inadequate. 8. The proposed plan would assure a new day of immeasurably greater opportunities for Wake Forest College and for the Baptists of North Car- olina. In the evening after the trustee meeting Judge Oates appeared before a special convocation of the student body and urged its members to be patient, to wait for factual information, and not to pay much attention to rumor. The trustees, he said, badly needed "to know what the Baptists of North Carolina want us to do." It was supposed at that time that the Reynolds offer would be pre-